Calling Nightmare CSRs

[Pils]

Am I the only person who just has a horrendous time trying to call 1800 333DISH. Everytime I call, I am on hold for 10 minutes at least, once in a while only a couple minutes. Have been on hold for 50 minutes before actually speaking to someone and often I get disconnected. 50% disconnect chance when transferring. Tonight I had a 522 problem where the remote just stopped responding. Called in and was on hold under technical help option for 12.5 minutes before speaking to someone. Then while they were helping me, he just stopped responding and my phone did not hang up so I was still connected to the guy. So had to call in again, this time 14.5 minutes of hold time. So I spent over 45 minutes on the phone just to get a replacement remote. This was actually much faster than previous times. What is the deal?

Are there any other numbers that get you through quicker for:
Programming?
Technical Help?

I was told that there are no other options for technical help by the CSRs. And the Dishclub # that supposively gets you along quicker does absolutely nothing, same amount of hold time, think it just reroutes to the same central location.

 

[bippi]

You did try changing the batteries...right?

 

[Pils]

Batteries were not the problem unfortunately, they are new. The controller worked for other functions, just not the sat functions. And the remote address was all correct and tried changing it around. Anyways, my other controller works the system fine but they are sending a replacement. Just dont understand why the long wait everytime I call, wish people could put a list of alternate numbers to call for the different departments so I don't have to waste my time calling and waiting.

 

[bcshields]

Nature of the beast. unfortunately good CSR's are hard to find. Of the good ones, most get promoted to more challenging positions and the crappy ones are left to deal with the general questions.

Had one cust call me after getting frustrated with a 322 TV2 and a VCR. CSR told him "well, maybe you can't use it." and all the problem was wityh it was changing the TV to channel 3 to see the VCR, and 73 to see satellite.

 

[Mike4HDTV]

I called Dish a few times in the past week and never had a wait time that exceeded 5 minutes. The CSR's were very nice and professional and always helped me.

 

[Mr Tony]

I called them to order Wrestlemania and the whole call from the time I hit send til I hung up was maybe 5 minutes

once I had issues in 5 years but otherwise great service

 

[Hitachi51]

I have had no problems. I purchased a DISH 721 (Remanufactured) unit from DishStore.NET and had it activated last Saturday. The 721 works great.
On the same call I had them drop NBC East feed and add the HD package.
They gave me the six months free deal on the HD and did not charge me the $5.00 fee for dropping NBC. They were very helpful, in fact they have not charged the $5.00 fee the last two times I have changed my programming.

 

[kluken]

Am I the only person who just has a horrendous time trying to call 1800 333DISH. Everytime I call, I am on hold for 10 minutes at least, once in a while only a couple minutes. Have been on hold for 50 minutes before actually speaking to someone and often I get disconnected. 50% disconnect chance when transferring. Tonight I had a 522 problem where the remote just stopped responding. Called in and was on hold under technical help option for 12.5 minutes before speaking to someone. Then while they were helping me, he just stopped responding and my phone did not hang up so I was still connected to the guy. So had to call in again, this time 14.5 minutes of hold time. So I spent over 45 minutes on the phone just to get a replacement remote. This was actually much faster than previous times. What is the deal?

Are there any other numbers that get you through quicker for:
Programming?
Technical Help?

I was told that there are no other options for technical help by the CSRs. And the Dishclub # that supposively gets you along quicker does absolutely nothing, same amount of hold time, think it just reroutes to the same central location.

You're lucky! My disconnect rate with transfers to 921 support was more like 80%+

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I've always had pretty good luck with Dish CS support. Never been disconnected, the only issues i'v had is the language barrier.

Otherwise they've always been courteous and helpful.

Paul

 

[Stargazer]

I get sick of getting the runaround and getting hung up on when I try to get something resolved. Sometimes they know the wrong things and refuse to help or think its something else. Every once in a while one will do what they can for you but that is a lot more rare now.

 

[haertig]

Am I the only person who just has a horrendous time trying to call 1800 333DISH.

In general, I haven't had too many issues. The occassional wait, the occassional unknowledgeable tech ... the usual stuff you get from every company out there.

I've found preemptive stikes (gently done) help a lot when dealing with anybody's tech support. For the DISH example, you initially take control of the call and tell them you've done all the standard stuff - soft boot, hard boot, verified signal strength, etc. If you let it slide to where they take control and start asking the questions (mostly really basic and stupid ones typically), then most of the time you are drug into a useless conversation. The key is to let them know, right from the start, that you're not an idiot. In fact, most of us here probably know more about their system than the techs themselves! On a good day, you should be able to manuever them into entering the (useless?) "Uncommon Trend Report" within 30 seconds of first voice contact. I'm not saying you should be snobby or rude to the techs. Just the opposite. Gentle friendy conversation will go much further, provided it's clear that you know what you're talking about.

Now, does any of the above really get you a solution? Probably not. But at least you don't feel abused and ignored after the phone call...

 

[Pils]

Found something very interesting. My buddy tonight was calling to activate a box, he was on hold for over 20 minutes so I called on another phone to see if I could get on the phone with someone before him. I chose a cell phone not tied to an account and chose the "new customer" option. Then it asked for a 10 digit # for where I want service. I just hit 0 and # and it failed. Did 3 times, then let me speak to CSR. Took all of 1 minute and I was actually speaking to a CSR while he was still on hold for over 20 minutes. Then I tried this technique later with him calling under his account and me as a "new customer." Same thing, me 1 minute, him just waiting, he never actually got someone and hung up.

Moral of Story: Can't get thru, call up and select "New Customer," shows where their priorities are!

 

[haertig]

I chose a cell phone not tied to an account and chose the "new customer" option.

I did this same thing a while back. Same experience for me. Got right through. In my case I simply dialed those "block your Caller ID transmission" digits before dialing Dish.

Another technique that worked for me once with a different company. I could NEVER get through to a human. Terminal hold on all lines. I then looked at their published fax number and added one to the last digit. Another fax machine. Drats! Added two to that last digit and bingo ... a human. A confused one none-the-less, but still a human who actaully got me transferred to somebody who could help.